The COVID-19 pandemic has touched every business and industry. Law firms are no exception.

We asked a few of our customers how they have pivoted away from the office, which tools have been the most useful to maintain productivity, and what challenges they’re facing during this time. We were also curious how Litify has helped them during this transition and were happy to hear that our customers were able to easily move to a remote work environment.

Has Litify helped you with the transition to remote work?

Austin Camp, Marketing Director, Phillips Law Firm:

Thanks to Litify, we were able to convert the entire law firm to a remote working operation in about 36 hours. Allowing us to continue providing service to our clients in need. The transition has forced us to become solely reliant on our technology which is innovating new improvements to our workflow and processes, further resulting in an improved client experience.

Stacy Laffere, Chief Operations Officer, Haggard Law Firm:

YES! We have access to our files from anywhere as long as there is a WiFi connection. The ability to edit documents and save from the program has been incredible.

Jonathan Smith, Vice President, Riddle & Brantley:

With Litify’s cloud-based system we were able to transition into working remotely almost immediately. Since we also use VOIP phones that integrate with Litify, all any user needed to be 100% functional was a computer and the internet. It couldn’t have been any easier, and we didn’t have any downtime.

Diego Suarez, Operations Manager, Lynch Law Firm:

Since Litify is a web-based program, no need to remote into our PC at work, although we also have that capability to access our network folders if needed. Personally, I have the ability to jump from my PC, to my laptop, to my phone to access our information in Litify.

John Hawkins, Founder and Owner, HawkLaw:

We’ve found the whole process relatively painless, thank goodness, because we had been making digital preparations for years and Litify has been a big part of that. We’re almost entirely paperless so everything we need, no matter where everybody is, they can get to it online. So it’s been very helpful.

Jason Krim, Operations Manager, Ricci Law Firm:

The reporting in Litify is probably the best part.

Wesley Cagle, Director of Litigation Operations, Daniel Stark Injury Lawyers:

Our decision to move to Litify could not have come at a better time. In the midst of challenging times we are basically running business as usual thanks, in large part, to Litify.

How have you pivoted away from in-person client meetings?

Haggard Law Firm: We have been using all other platforms at our disposal to stay in contact with our clients…phone calls, emails, text, and Zoom video calls to name a few. It’s definitely an integrated approach depending on the client’s technological capabilities.

Lynch Law Firm: 100% remote client meetings, whether phone conference or video conference.

Ricci Law Firm: We use phone calls, Zoom, or GoToMeeting.

Daniel Stark Injury Lawyers: We’re offering video conferences and meetings but most of our clients don’t want that or they don’t have the technology to do it but they’re happy that we offered it.

I’m finding that our clients really just like having options with how to communicate with us that works best for them. So our team is willing to meet with them on a case by case basis in person right now, but a lot of people are choosing to instead just do telephone, and some people don’t want us to call them at all, just text them. Really, we’re just giving them options so they can be satisfied with our service depending on what they want.

What tools have you found helpful for communicating with clients during this time?

Haggard Law Firm: Our office phones can be used at our personal residences, which has been extremely useful in making phone calls. We also use our cell phones to text clients. We started using DocuSign for electronic signatures. This lessens the delay in requesting records or getting documents filed.

Lynch Law Firm: The SMS Magic texting feature through Litify, 8×8, DocuSign, Zoom Meetings, and Skype.

Ricci Law Firm:  We’ve used phones, text, and email as usual.

What tools have you found helpful for communicating with staff during this time?

Haggard Law Firm: We have heavily relied on Zoom and FaceTime to keep in contact. We are constantly interacting via email and phone. It’s so nice to be able to see everyone via video chat! We miss seeing each other!

Lynch Law Firm: Litify, 8×8 meetings, Google docs, WhatsApp, and Zoom meetings.

Ricci Law Firm: We have a VOIP system and everyone just carried their phones home, so I just dial their extension like they were in the office. We meet online via GoToMeeting if needed.

Daniel Stark Injury Lawyers: My team is using MicrosoftTeams a lot. And our phone system is connected through VPNs on everyone’s computer so we’re able to make calls in and out.

We have a huddle in our offices every morning normally, so we’ve moved to a video huddle on MicrosoftTeams. It’s been pretty fun. I think everyone has really enjoyed that—seeing everybody in the morning—so it’s been a way to stay connected for us.

How are you monitoring case progress and staff productivity?

Haggard Law Firm: Of course we use Litify to track our case progress. Luckily, we hardly skipped a beat in the transition to working full-time remotely thanks to Litify, Zoom and other platforms that keep us informed and our cases moving forward.

Lynch Law Firm: Beginning-of-day video meetings, end-of-day video meetings, end-of-week firm-wide meetings, and daily task lists. We’re also taking the time to review all of our cases since there are fewer distractions at this point.

Ricci Law Firm: On the first few days of remote work, I created dashboards and reports for all department heads, like in the example below.

What steps have you taken, if any, to ensure your data is secure when employees work from home?

Nimesh Patil, Salesforce Administrator, Hornsby Law:

One of the things that we deployed was two-factor authentication. Fortunately Litify is on the Salesforce platform which already has two-factor authentication, which we did turn off in the past, so we did reenable that. We forced all of our users to download the Salesforce app on their phones and start authenticating their sign-ons on their phones.

We also use another application called LoginTC that allows you to set up two-factor authentication for your internal applications. In other words, we’re taking away the idea of the user having to worry about security and letting the firm handle it.

Haggard Law Firm: Our firm implemented a dual-factor authentication procedure a while ago to ensure our data is secure while working from home. Our office uses Duo Security.

Ricci Law Firm: We require password changes weekly.

Has the crisis affected your marketing at all?

Haggard Law Firm: If anything, our marketing efforts have increased! We want to ensure that clients (and potential new clients) understand that while we may not be at our office, we are still working harder than ever on their cases.

Lynch Law Firm: It’s affected our marketing positively. We’re advertising that we can meet with clients remotely and there is no need for them or us to expose themselves to any risks.

Are there any other hurdles or challenges your firm has faced in the last few days?

Haggard Law Firm: With any change there will be hurdles, but I’m very proud of how our firm has handled them. Each issue has been addressed head-on and with the utmost efficiency in order to keep everyone working at maximum capacity. I can’t think of a specific example of a hurdle, but we have been able to resolve all issues in a very timely manner.

Lynch Law Firm: With the Courts being as limited as they’ve become, there is less in the way of moving cases along in litigation, however, now we’re focusing on the pre-litigation cases and pushing to settle those. This is giving us some time to review our cases and see where we go from there.

I feel we are/were better equipped to handle the transition to full-time remote than some other firms that have been around longer.

Ricci Law Firm: The biggest issue is that so many of my staff did not have an office suite to work on documents. I got around this by creating a way for them to remote to their workstations using TeamViewer when they have to generate documents or pull data off of the server.